Arline Geronimus hypothesizes that chronic stress accelerates biological aging and chronic disease onset. Telomere length may be an indicator of biological age that is affected by stress. Geronimus is working with Amy Jo Schulz and Jay Pearson at UM and Elissa Epel and Elizabeth Blackburn at UCSF to collect and analyze community survey data and venous blood draws, looking for racial differences in telomere length and allostatic load, and the association of these biomarkers with urban stressors.